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Neuroblastoma Treatment

General Information About Neuroblastoma

Fortunately, cancer in children and adolescents is rare, although the overall incidence of childhood cancer has been slowly increasing since 1975.[1] Children and adolescents with cancer are usually referred to medical centers that have a multidisciplinary team of cancer specialists with experience treating the cancers that occur during childhood and adolescence. This multidisciplinary team approach incorporates the skills of the following health care professionals and others to ensure that children receive treatment, supportive care, and rehabilitation that will enable them to achieve optimal survival and quality of life:

Primary care physician.

Pediatric surgical subspecialists.

Radiation oncologists.

Pediatric medical oncologists/hematologists.

Rehabilitation specialists.

Pediatric nurse specialists.

Social workers.

(Refer to the PDQ summaries on Supportive and Palliative Care for specific information about supportive care for children and adolescents with cancer.)

Guidelines for pediatric cancer centers and their role in the treatment of pediatric patients with cancer have been outlined by the American Academy of Pediatrics.[2] At these pediatric cancer centers, clinical trials are available for most types of cancer that occur in children and adolescents, and the opportunity to participate in these trials is offered to most patients and families. Clinical trials for children and adolescents with cancer are generally designed to compare potentially better therapy with therapy that is currently accepted as standard. Most of the progress made in identifying curative therapies for childhood cancers has been achieved through clinical trials. Information about ongoing clinical trials is available from the NCI Web site.

Dramatic improvements in survival have been achieved for children and adolescents with cancer.[1,3,4] Between 1975 and 2010, childhood cancer mortality decreased by more than 50%.[1,3,4] Childhood and adolescent cancer survivors require close follow-up since cancer therapy side effects may persist or develop months or years after treatment. (Refer to the PDQ summary on Late Effects of Treatment for Childhood Cancer for specific information about the incidence, type, and monitoring of late effects in childhood and adolescent cancer survivors.)

Incidence

Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid tumor in childhood. More than 650 cases are diagnosed each year in North America.[5,6] The prevalence is about 1 case per 7,000 live births; the incidence is about 10.54 cases per 1 million per year in children younger than 15 years. About 37% are diagnosed as infants, and 90% are younger than 5 years at diagnosis, with a median age at diagnosis of 19 months.[7]

While there is no racial variation in incidence, there are racial differences in tumor biology, with African Americans more likely to have high-risk disease and fatal outcome.[8,9]

Population-based studies of screening for infants with neuroblastoma have demonstrated that spontaneous regression of neuroblastoma without clinical detection in the first year of life is at least as prevalent as clinically detected neuroblastoma.[10,11,12]

Anatomy

Neuroblastoma originates in the adrenal medulla or the paraspinal sites where sympathetic nervous system tissue is present.

Risk Factors

Little is known about the events that predispose to the development of neuroblastoma. Parental exposures have not been definitively linked to neuroblastoma.

Germline deletion at the 1p36 or 11q14-23 locus is associated with neuroblastoma, and the same deletions are found somatically in sporadic neuroblastomas.[13,14]

About 1% to 2% of patients with neuroblastoma have a family history of neuroblastoma. These children are on average younger (9 months at diagnosis), and about 20% have multifocal primary neuroblastomas. The primary cause of familial neuroblastoma is a germline mutation in the ALK gene.[15] Familial neuroblastoma is rarely associated with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (Ondine's curse), which is caused by a germline mutation of the PHOX2B gene.[16]

Biologic and Molecular Features

Biological subtypes

On the basis of biologic factors and an improved understanding of the molecular development of the neural crest cells that give rise to neuroblastoma, neuroblastic tumors have been categorized into the following three biological types:

Type 1: Characterized by gains and losses of whole chromosomes. It expresses the TrkA neurotrophin receptor, is hyperdiploid, and tends to spontaneously regress.[17,18]

Type 2A: Characterized by copy number alterations in portions of chromosomes. Type 2A expresses the TrkB neurotrophin receptor and its ligand, has gained an additional copy of chromosome 17q, has loss of heterozygosity of 14q or 11q, and is genomically unstable.[17,18]

Type 2B: Generally has the MYCN gene amplified and has a gain of chromosome 17q, loss of chromosome 1p, and expression of the TrkB neurotrophin receptor and its ligand.[17,18]

These specific genetic changes may be combined with traditional clinical factors such as patient age and tumor stage to refine neuroblastoma risk classes.

Children whose tumors have lost a copy of 11q are older at diagnosis, and their tumors contain more segmental chromosome changes in gene copy number compared with children whose tumors show MYCN amplification.[19,20] Moreover, segmental chromosome changes not detected at diagnosis may be found in neuroblastomas at relapse. This suggests that clinically important tumor progression is associated with accumulation of segmental chromosomal alterations.[21]

Molecular features

Approximately 6% to 10% of sporadic neuroblastomas carry somatic ALK-activating mutations, and an additional 3% to 4% have a high frequency of ALK gene amplification. The mutations result in constitutive phosphorylation of ALK, leading to dysregulation of cell signaling and uncontrolled proliferation of the ALK-mutant neuroblasts. Thus, inhibition of ALK kinase is a potential target for treatment of neuroblastoma, especially in children whose tumors harbor an ALK mutation or ALK gene amplification.[22]

Genome-wide association studies in children with neuroblastoma have found common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with a modest susceptibility to develop high-risk neuroblastoma.[23,24] Other SNPs are associated with susceptibility to develop low-risk neuroblastoma.[24] SNPs associated with race predict a higher incidence of neuroblastoma and worse outcome.[25]

Large genomic studies have found few recurrent gene mutations in patients with neuroblastoma, including ALK (9.2%), PTPN11 (2.9%), ATRX (2.5%; 7.1% focal deletions), MYCN (1.7%), and NRAS (0.8%).[19,21,26,27]ATRX is involved in epigenetic gene silencing and telomere length. ATRX mutation without MYCN amplification is associated with older age at diagnosis in adolescents and young adults with metastatic neuroblastoma.[28] It is unclear whether an ATRX mutation is an independent prognostic risk factor.

Neuroblastoma Screening

Current data do not support neuroblastoma screening. Screening at the ages of 3 weeks, 6 months, or 1 year caused no reduction in the incidence of advanced-stage neuroblastoma with unfavorable biological characteristics in older children, nor did it reduce the number of deaths from neuroblastoma in infants screened at any age.[11,12] No public health benefits have been shown from screening infants for neuroblastoma at these ages. (Refer to the PDQ summary on Neuroblastoma Screening for more information.)

Evidence (against neuroblastoma screening):

1.

A large population-based North American study, in which most infants in Quebec were screened at the ages of 3 weeks and 6 months, has shown that screening detects many neuroblastomas with favorable characteristics [10,11] that would never have been detected clinically, apparently due to spontaneous regression of the tumors.

2.

Another study of infants screened at the age of 1 year shows similar results.[12]

Clinical Presentation

The most common presentation of neuroblastoma is an abdominal mass. The most frequent signs and symptoms of neuroblastoma are due to tumor mass and metastases. They include the following:

Proptosis and periorbital ecchymosis: Common in high-risk patients and arise from retrobulbar metastasis.

Abdominal distention: May occur with respiratory compromise in infants due to massive liver metastases.

Bone pain: Occurs in association with metastatic disease.

Pancytopenia: May result from extensive bone marrow metastasis.

Fever, hypertension, and anemia: Occasionally found in patients without metastasis.

Paralysis: Because they originate in paraspinal ganglia, neuroblastomas may invade through neural foramina and compress the spinal cord extradurally. Immediate treatment is given for symptomatic spinal cord compression. (Refer to the Treatment of Spinal Cord Compression section of this summary for more information.)

Watery diarrhea: On rare occasions, children may have severe, watery diarrhea due to the secretion of vasoactive intestinal peptide by the tumor, or may have protein-losing enteropathy with intestinal lymphangiectasia.[29] Vasoactive intestinal peptide secretion may also occur upon chemotherapeutic treatment, and tumor resection reduces vasoactive intestinal peptide secretion.[30]

Presence of Horner syndrome: May be caused by neuroblastoma in the stellate ganglion, and children with Horner syndrome without other apparent cause are also examined for neuroblastoma and other tumors.[31]

Subcutaneous skin nodules: Neuroblastoma subcutaneous metastasis often has bluish discoloration in the overlying skin and usually is seen only in infants.

The clinical characteristics of neuroblastoma in adolescents are similar to those observed in children. The only exception is that bone marrow involvement occurs less frequently in adolescents, and there is a greater frequency of metastases in unusual sites such as lung or brain.[32]

Opsoclonus/myoclonus syndrome

Paraneoplastic neurologic findings, including cerebellar ataxia or opsoclonus/myoclonus, are rare in children with neuroblastoma.[33] Opsoclonus/myoclonus syndrome is frequently associated with pervasive and permanent neurologic and cognitive deficits, including psychomotor retardation. Neurologic dysfunction is most often a presenting symptom but may arise long after removal of the tumor.[34,35,36]

Patients who present with opsoclonus/myoclonus syndrome often have neuroblastomas with favorable biological features and are likely to survive, though tumor-related deaths have been reported.[34]

The opsoclonus/myoclonus syndrome appears to be caused by an immunologic mechanism that is not yet fully defined.[34,37] The primary tumor is typically diffusely infiltrated with lymphocytes.[38]

Some patients may clinically respond to removal of the neuroblastoma, but improvement may be slow and partial; symptomatic treatment is often necessary. Adrenocorticotropic hormone or corticosteroid treatment is thought to be effective, but some patients do not respond to corticosteroids.[35,37] Various drugs, plasmapheresis, intravenous gamma globulin, and rituximab have been reported to be effective in selected cases.[35,39,40,41] The long-term neurologic outcome may be superior in patients treated with chemotherapy, possibly because of its immunosuppressive effects.[33,39]

Imaging of the primary tumor mass: This is generally accomplished by computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with contrast. Paraspinal tumors that might threaten spinal cord compression are imaged using MRI.

Urine catecholamine metabolites: Urinary excretion of the catecholamine metabolites vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) and homovanillic acid (HVA) per mg of excreted creatinine is measured before therapy. Collection of urine for 24 hours is not needed. If elevated, these markers can be used to determine the persistence of disease.

Serum catecholamines are not routinely used in the diagnosis of neuroblastoma except in unusual circumstances.

Biopsy: Tumor tissue is often needed to obtain all the biological data required for risk-group assignment and subsequent treatment stratification in current Children's Oncology Group (COG) clinical trials. There is an absolute requirement for tissue biopsy to determine the International Neuroblastoma Pathology Classification (INPC). In the risk/treatment group assignment schema for the current COG studies, INPC is used to determine treatment for patients with stage 3 disease, stage 4S disease, and patients aged 18 months or younger with stage 4 disease. Additionally, a significant number of tumor cells are needed to determine MYCN copy number DNA index and 11q and 1p loss of heterozygosity. For patients older than 18 months with stage 4 disease, bone marrow with extensive tumor involvement combined with elevated catecholamine metabolites is adequate for diagnosis and assigning risk/treatment group.

In rare cases, neuroblastoma can be discovered prenatally by fetal ultrasonography.[43] There is controversy about the need for immediate diagnostic biopsy in infants aged 6 months and younger with suspected neuroblastoma tumors that are likely to spontaneously regress. Biopsy was not required for infants entered into a COG study of expectant observation of small adrenal masses in neonates, and 81% avoided undergoing any surgery at all.[44] In a German clinical trial, 25 infants aged 3 months and younger with presumed neuroblastoma were observed without biopsy for periods of 1 to 18 months before biopsy or resection. There were no apparent ill effects of the delay.[45]

The diagnosis of neuroblastoma requires the involvement of pathologists who are familiar with childhood tumors. Some neuroblastomas cannot be differentiated, via conventional light microscopy, from other small round blue cell tumors of childhood, such as lymphomas, primitive neuroectodermal tumors, and rhabdomyosarcomas.

The minimum criterion for a diagnosis of neuroblastoma, as established by international agreement, is that diagnosis must be based on one of the following:

1.

An unequivocal pathologic diagnosis made from tumor tissue by light microscopy (with or without immunohistology, electron microscopy, or increased levels of serum catecholamines [dopamine and norepinephrine] or urinary catecholamine metabolites [VMA or HVA]).[46]

Between 1975 and 2002, the 5-year survival rate for neuroblastoma in the United States has remained stable at approximately 87% for children younger than 1 year and has increased from 37% to 65% in children aged 1 to 14 years.[1] The 5-year overall survival for all infants and children with neuroblastoma has increased from 46% when diagnosed between 1974 and 1989, to 71% when diagnosed between 1999 and 2005;[47] however, this single number can be misleading because of the extremely heterogeneous prognosis based on the neuroblastoma patient's age, stage, and biology. (Refer to the Cellular Classification of Neuroblastic Tumors section of this summary for more information.) Approximately 70% of patients with neuroblastoma have metastatic disease at diagnosis.

The prognosis for patients with neuroblastoma is related to the following:[48,49,50,51]

Age at diagnosis.

Clinical stage of disease.

Site of the primary tumor.

Tumor histology.

Regional lymph node involvement (in children older than 1 year, but this is controversial).

Response to treatment.

Biological features.

Some of these prognostic factors have been combined to create risk groups to help define treatment. (Refer to the International Neuroblastoma Risk Group Staging System section and the Children's Oncology Group Neuroblastoma Risk Grouping section of this summary for more information.)

Age at diagnosis

The effect of age at diagnosis on 5-year survival is profound. The 5-year survival stratified by age is as follows:[47]

Age younger than 1 year – 90%.

Age 1 to 4 years – 68%.

Age 5 to 9 years – 52%.

Age 10 to 14 years – 66%.

Children of any age with localized neuroblastoma and infants aged 18 months and younger with advanced disease and favorable disease characteristics have a high likelihood of long-term, disease-free survival.[52] The prognosis of fetal and neonatal neuroblastoma are similar to that of older infants with neuroblastoma and similar biological features.[53] Older children with advanced-stage disease, however, have a significantly decreased chance for cure, despite intensive therapy.

Adolescents and young adults

Neuroblastoma has a worse long-term prognosis in an adolescent older than 12 years or in an adult compared with a child, regardless of stage or site and, in many cases, a more prolonged course when treated with standard doses of chemotherapy. Aggressive chemotherapy and surgery have been shown to achieve a minimal disease state in more than 50% of these patients.[32,54,55] Other modalities, such as local radiation therapy and the use of agents with confirmed activity, may improve the poor prognosis for adolescents and adults.[54,55]

Clinical stage of disease

Neuroblastoma tumors have been clinically staged using surgical and pathological data according to the International Neuroblastoma Staging System (INSS). Stage of disease is correlated with outcome.

Studies of children with stage 1 and 2 neuroblastoma with favorable biologic features report an EFS rate of almost 100%, compared with an event-free survival (EFS) rate of about 50% for those who have unfavorable biological features (i.e., INPC and MYCN gene amplification).[56,57,58] Infants aged 1 year and younger have a greater than 80% cure rate, while older children have a cure rate of 50% to 70% with current, relatively intensive therapy.[59,60,61,62]

Survival of patients with INSS stage 4 disease is strongly dependent on age. Children younger than 1 year at diagnosis have a good chance of long-term survival (i.e., a 5-year disease-free survival rate of 50%–80%),[63,64] with outcome particularly dependent on MYCN amplification and tumor cell ploidy. Hyperdiploidy confers a favorable prognosis while diploidy predicts early treatment failure.[60,65] Infants aged 18 months and younger at diagnosis with INSS stage 4 neuroblastoma who do not have MYCN gene amplification are categorized as intermediate risk.[7,66,67,68]

Site of primary tumor

Site of primary tumor is not an independent prognostic factor. Multifocal (multiple primaries) neuroblastoma occurs rarely, usually in infants, and generally has a good prognosis.[69] Familial neuroblastoma and germline ALK gene mutation should be considered in patients with multiple primary neuroblastomas.

Tumor histology

Neuroblastoma tumor histology has a significant impact on prognosis and risk group assignment (refer to the Cellular Classification of Neuroblastic Tumors section and Table 4 of this summary for more information).

Histologic characteristics considered prognostically favorable include the following:

Cystic neuroblastoma. About 25% of reported neuroblastomas diagnosed in the fetus and neonate are cystic; cystic neuroblastomas have lower stages and a higher incidence of favorable biology.[53]

Histologic characteristics considered prognostically unfavorable include the following:

Mitosis.

Karyorrhexis.

Regional lymph node involvement

In metastatic neuroblastoma, the presence of cancer in the lymph nodes on the same side of the body as the primary tumor has no effect on prognosis. However, when lymph nodes with metastatic neuroblastoma cross the midline and are on the opposite sides of the body from the primary tumor, the patient is upstaged (refer to the Stage Information for Neuroblastoma section of this summary for more information) and a poorer prognosis is conferred.

Response to treatment

Response to treatment has been associated with outcome. The persistence of neuroblastoma cells in bone marrow after induction chemotherapy, for example, is associated with a poor prognosis, which may be assessed by sensitive minimal residual disease techniques.[72,73,74] The degree of tumor volume reduction predicts response in high-risk patients, as does a decrease in mitosis and an increase in histologic differentiation.[75,76] Similarly, the persistence of mIBG-avid tumor after completion of induction therapy predicts a poor prognosis.[77]

Biological features

A number of biologic variables have been studied in children with this tumor:[78]

Biological subtype: These biological types are not used to determine treatment at this time; however, type 1 has a very favorable prognosis, while types 2A and 2B have poor prognoses. (Refer to the Biological subtypes subsection of this summary for more information on subtypes 1, 2A, and 2B.)

MYCN amplification: MYCN amplification (defined as greater than 10 copies per diploid genome) is detected in 16% to 25% of tumors.[79] In stage 2, 3, 4, and 4S patients, amplification of the MYCN gene strongly predicts a poorer prognosis in both time to tumor progression and overall survival in almost all multivariate regression analyses of prognostic factors. Amplification of the MYCN gene is associated not only with deletion of chromosome 1p, but also gain of the long arm of chromosome 17 (17q), the latter of which independently predicts a poor prognosis.[80] Within the localized MYCN-amplified cohort, ploidy status may further predict outcome.[81]

The degree of expression of the MYCN gene in the tumor does not predict prognosis.[82] However, high overall MYCN-dependent gene expression and low expression of sympathetic neuron late differentiation genes both predict a poor outcome of neuroblastomas otherwise considered to be at low or intermediate risk of recurrence.[83]

Segmental chromosome changes: Segmental chromosome number changes predict recurrence in infants with localized unresectable or metastatic neuroblastoma without MYCN gene amplification. Among all patients with neuroblastoma, a higher number of chromosome breakpoints correlated with advanced age at diagnosis, advanced stage of disease, higher risk of relapse, and a poorer outcome, whether or not MYCN amplification was considered.[19,21,26,84]

Whole chromosome changes: Whole chromosome copy number changes do not predict recurrence and are associated with hyperdiploidy.

Other biological prognostic factors that have been extensively investigated include tumor cell telomere length, telomerase activity, and telomerase ribonucleic acid;[85,86] urinary VMA, HVA, and their ratio;[87]MRP1;[88] GABAergic receptor profile;[89] dopamine; CD44 expression; TrkA gene expression; and serum neuron-specific enolase level, serum lactic dehydrogenase level, and serum ferritin level.[78] These factors are currently not in use for stratification on clinical trials.

Spontaneous Regression of Neuroblastoma

The phenomenon of spontaneous regression has been well described in infants with neuroblastoma, especially in infants with the 4S pattern of metastatic spread.[90] (Refer to the Stage Information for Neuroblastoma section of this summary for more information.)

Spontaneous regression generally occurs only in tumors with the following features:[91]

Near triploid number of chromosomes.

No MYCN amplification.

No loss of chromosome 1p.

Additional features associated with spontaneous regression include the lack of telomerase expression,[92,93] the expression of Ha-ras,[94] and the expression of the neurotrophin receptor TrkA, a nerve growth factor receptor.[95]

Studies have suggested that selected infants who appear to have asymptomatic, small, low-stage adrenal neuroblastoma detected by screening or during prenatal or incidental ultrasound examination, often have tumors that spontaneously regress and may be observed safely without surgical intervention or tissue diagnosis.[96,97,98]

Evidence (observation):

1.

In a COG study, 83 highly selected infants younger than 6 months with stage 1 small adrenal masses as defined by imaging studies were observed without biopsy. Surgical intervention was reserved for those with growth or progression of the mass or increasing concentrations of urinary catecholamine metabolites.[44]

Eighty-one percent were spared surgery and all were alive at 2 years of follow-up (refer to the Surgery subsection of this summary for more information).

Guidelines for the pediatric cancer center and role of such centers in diagnosis and treatment. American Academy of Pediatrics Section Statement Section on Hematology/Oncology. Pediatrics 99 (1): 139-41, 1997.

Cellular Classification of Neuroblastic Tumors

Neuroblastomas are classified as one of the small, round, blue cell tumors of childhood. They are a heterogenous group of tumors composed of cellular aggregates with different degrees of differentiation, from mature ganglioneuromas to less mature ganglioneuroblastomas to immature neuroblastomas, reflecting the varying malignant potential of these tumors.[1]

There are two cellular classification systems for neuroblastoma.

International Neuroblastoma Pathology Classification (INPC) System: The INPC system involves evaluation of tumor specimens obtained before therapy for the following morphologic features:[2,3,4,5]

Amount of Schwannian stroma.

Degree of neuroblastic maturation.

Mitosis-karyorrhexis index of the neuroblastic cells.

Favorable and unfavorable prognoses are defined on the basis of these histologic parameters and patient age. The prognostic significance of this classification system, and of related systems using similar criteria, has been confirmed in several studies.[2,3,4]

In the future, the INPC system is likely to be replaced by a system that does not include patient age as a part of cellular classification.

Table 1. Prognostic Evaluation of Neuroblastic Tumors According to the International Neuroblastoma Pathology Classification (Shimada System)a

International Neuroblastoma Risk Group (INRG) Classification System: The INRG used a decision-tree analysis to compare 35 prognostic factors in more than 8,000 patients with neuroblastoma from a variety of clinical trials. The following INPC (Shimada system) histologic factors were included in the analysis:[7,8]

Diagnostic category.

Grade of differentiation.

Mitosis/karyorrhexis index.

Because patient age is used in all risk stratification systems, a cellular classification system that did not employ patient age was desirable, and underlying histologic criteria, rather than INPC or Shimada Classification, was used in the final decision tree. Histologic findings discriminated prognostic groups most clearly in two subsets of patients, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Histologic Discrimination of International Neuroblastoma Risk Group Subsets of Neuroblastoma Patientsa

Stage Information for Neuroblastoma

Staging Evaluation

A thorough evaluation for metastatic disease is performed before therapy initiation. The following studies are typically performed:[1]

Metaiodobenzylguanidine (mIBG) scan

Before resection of the primary tumor, bone involvement is assessed by mIBG scan, which is applicable to all sites of disease, and by technetium-99 scan if the results of the mIBG scan are negative or unavailable.[2,3] Approximately 90% of neuroblastomas will be mIBG avid. It has a sensitivity and specificity of 90% to 99% and is equally distributed between primary and metastatic sites.[4] Although iodine 123 (123 I) has a shorter half-life, it is preferred over131 I because of its lower radiation dose, better quality images, less thyroid toxicity, and lower cost.

Imaging with 123 I-mIBG is optimal for identifying soft tissue and bony metastases and is superior to 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography–computerized tomography (PET-CT) in a prospective comparison.[5] Baseline mIBG scans performed at diagnosis provide an excellent method for monitoring disease response and performing posttherapy surveillance.[6]

A retrospective analysis of paired mIBG and PET scans in 60 newly diagnosed neuroblastoma patients demonstrated that for International Neuroblastoma Staging System (INSS) stages 1 and 2 patients, PET was superior at determining the extent of primary disease and more sensitive for detection of residual masses. In contrast, for stage 4 disease, 123 I-mIBG imaging was superior for the detection of bone marrow and bony metastases.[7]

Curie score and SIOPEN score

Multiple groups have investigated a semi-quantitative scoring method to evaluate disease extent and prognostic value. The most common scoring methods in use for evaluation of disease extent and response are the Curie and the International Society of Paediatric Oncology European Neuroblastoma Group (SIOPEN) methods.

Curie score: The Curie score is a semiquantitative scoring system developed to predict the extent and severity of mIBG-avid disease. The use of the Curie scoring system was assessed as a prognostic marker for response and survival with mIBG-avid, stage 4 newly diagnosed high-risk neuroblastoma (N = 280), treated on the Children's Oncology Group (COG) protocol COG-A3973 (NCT00004188). Patients with a Curie score greater than 2 after induction therapy had a significantly worse event-free survival (EFS) than those with scores less than 2 (3-year EFS, 15.4% ± 5.3% for Curie score >2 vs. 44.9% ± 3.9% for Curie score ?2; P < .001). A postinduction Curie score greater than 2 identified a cohort of patients at greater risk of an event, independent of other known neuroblastoma factors, including age, MYCN status, ploidy, mitosis-karyorrhexis index, and histologic grade.[8]

SIOPEN score: A retrospective study of 58 stage 4 patients from the German Pediatric Oncology Group compared the prognostic value of the Curie and SIOPEN scoring methods. At diagnosis, a Curie score of 2 or less and a SIOPEN score of 4 or less (best cutoff) at diagnosis were correlated to significantly better EFS and overall survival, compared with higher scores. After four cycles of induction, those with complete response by mIBG had a better outcome than those with residual uptake, but after six cycles, there was no significant difference.[9]

Other staging tests and procedures

Other tests and procedures used to stage neuroblastoma include the following:

Lumbar puncture: Lumbar puncture is avoided because central nervous system (CNS) metastasis at diagnosis is rare,[11] and lumbar puncture may be associated with an increased incidence of subsequent development of CNS metastasis.[12]

Three-dimensional (3-D) imaging of the primary tumor and potential lymph node drainage sites is done using CT scans and/or MRI scans of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis. Ultrasound is considered suboptimal for accurate 3-D measurements.

Paraspinal tumors may extend through neural foramina to compress the spinal cord. Therefore, MRI of the spine adjacent to any paraspinal tumor is part of the staging evaluation.

A brain/orbit CT and/or MRI is performed if clinically indicated by examination and/or uptake on mIBG scan.

International Neuroblastoma Staging Systems

International Neuroblastoma Staging System (INSS)

The INSS has replaced the previously used Evans and Pediatric Oncology Group (POG) staging systems. The INSS is described in Table 3 and represents the first step in harmonizing risk stratification worldwide. The INSS is a postoperative staging system that was developed in 1988 and used the extent of surgical resection to stage patients. This led to variability in stage assignments in different countries, and INSS staging was also affected by access to experienced pediatric surgeons. As a result of further advances in the understanding of neuroblastoma biology and genetics, a new risk classification system was developed that incorporates newer biological factors into the INSS and reaches consensus on the criteria for defining each of these guidelines.

INSS combines certain features of the previously used Evans and POG systems [1,13] and has identified distinct prognostic groups (refer to Table 3).[1,13,14,15]

Table 3. The International Neuroblastoma Staging System (INSS)

Stage/Prognostic Group

Description

mIBG = metaiodobenzylguanidine.

Stage 1

Localized tumor with complete gross excision, with or without microscopic residual disease; representative ipsilateral lymph nodes negative for tumor microscopically (i.e., nodes attached to and removed with the primary tumor may be positive).

Unresectable unilateral tumor infiltrating across the midline, with or without regional lymph node involvement; or localized unilateral tumor with contralateral regional lymph node involvement; or midline tumor with bilateral extension by infiltration (unresectable) or by lymph node involvement. The midline is defined as the vertebral column. Tumors originating on one side and crossing the midline must infiltrate to or beyond the opposite side of the vertebral column.

Localized primary tumor, as defined for stage 1, 2A, or 2B, with dissemination limited to skin, liver, and/or bone marrow (by definition limited to infants younger than 12 months).[3]Marrow involvement should be minimal (i.e., <10% of total nucleated cells identified as malignant by bone biopsy or by bone marrow aspirate). More extensive bone marrow involvement would be considered stage 4 disease. The results of the mIBG scan, if performed, should be negative for disease in the bone marrow.

Controversy exists regarding the INSS staging system and the treatment of several small subsets of patients.[16,17,18] Risk group assignment and recommended treatment are expected to evolve as additional outcome data are analyzed. For example, the risk group for INSS stage 4, including patients aged 12 to 18 months, changed in 2005 for patients with MYCN-nonamplified status.[19,20,21]

International Neuroblastoma Risk Group Staging System (INRGSS)

The INRGSS is a preoperative staging system that was developed specifically for the INRG cellular classification system. The extent of disease is determined by the presence or absence of image-defined risk factors (IDRFs) and/or metastatic tumor at the time of diagnosis, before any treatment. IDRFs are surgical risk factors, detected by imaging, that make total tumor excision risky or difficult at the time of diagnosis.

The INRGSS simplifies stages into L1, L2, M or MS (refer to Table 4 for more information). Localized tumors are classified as stage L1 or L2 disease on the basis of whether one or more of the 20 IDRFs are present.[22] For example, in the case of spinal cord compression, an IDRF is present when more than one-third of the spinal canal in the axial plane is invaded, when the leptomeningeal spaces are not visible, or when the spinal cord magnetic resonance signal intensity is abnormal. By combining the INRGSS, preoperative imaging and biological factors, each patient has a risk stage defined that predicts outcome and dictates the appropriate treatment approach to be followed. The INRGSS has predictive value for lower stage patients, with stage L1 having a 5-year EFS of 90%, compared with 78% for L2.[22]

Most international protocols have begun to incorporate collection and use of IDRF in risk stratification and assignment of therapy.[23,24] It is anticipated that the use of standardized nomenclature will contribute substantially to more uniform staging and thereby facilitate comparisons of clinical trials conducted in different parts of the world.

Treatment Option Overview for Neuroblastoma

Because most children with neuroblastoma in North America are treated according to the Children's Oncology Group (COG) risk-group assignment, the treatments described in this summary are based on COG risk group assignment. Each child is assigned to a low-risk, intermediate-risk, or high-risk group (refer to Tables 6, 7, and 8 for more information) based on the following:[1,2,3,4,5,6]

Other biological factors that influence treatment selection include unbalanced 11q loss of heterozygosity and loss of heterozygosity for chromosome 1p.[7,8]

The treatment of neuroblastoma has evolved over the past 60 years. Generally, treatment is based on whether the tumor is low, intermediate, or high risk:

For low-risk tumors the approach is either observation or resection, and survival is greater than 98%.

For intermediate-risk tumors, chemotherapy is usually given before resection, with the amount and duration based on clinical and tumor biological risk factors. The survival rate for intermediate-risk patients in recent trials is close to 95%, and thus, the current trend is to decrease chemotherapy to diminish side effects.

For high-risk patients, treatment has intensified to include chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and immunotherapy, resulting in survival rates of 40% to 50%.

131 I-mIBG alone, in combination with other therapy, or followed by stem cell rescue.

Recurrence in the central nervous system

Surgery and radiation therapy.

Novel therapeutic approaches.

Children's Oncology Group (COG) Neuroblastoma Risk Grouping

The treatment section of this document is organized to correspond with the COG risk-based treatment plan that assigns all patients to a low-, intermediate-, or high-risk group. This risk-based schema is based on the following factors:

Table 6 (in the Treatment of Low-Risk Neuroblastoma section), Table 7 (in the Treatment of Intermediate-Risk Neuroblastoma section), and Table 8 (in the Treatment of High-Risk Neuroblastoma section) describe the risk group assignment criteria used to assign treatment in the COG-P9641 and COG-A3961 studies.

Assessment of risk for low-stage MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma is controversial because it is so rare. A study of 87 INSS stage 1 and 2 patients pooled from several clinical trial groups demonstrated no effect of age, stage, or initial treatment on outcome. The event-free survival (EFS) rate was 53% and the overall survival (OS) rate was 72%. Survival was superior in patients whose tumors were hyperdiploid, rather than diploid (EFS, 82% ± 20% vs. 37% ± 21%; OS, 94% ± 11% vs. 54% ± 15%).[9] The overall EFS and OS for infants with stage 4 and 4S disease and MYCN-amplification was only 30% at 2 to 5 years after treatment in a European study.[10]

Description of International Neuroblastoma Response Criteria

Before therapy can be stopped after the initially planned number of cycles, certain response criteria, depending on treatment group, must be met. These criteria are defined as follows:[11,12]

Complete Response: Total disappearance of tumor, with no evidence of disease. Vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) and homovanillic acid (HVA) are normal.

Very Good Partial Response: Primary tumor has decreased by 90% to 99%, and no evidence of metastatic disease. Urine VMA/HVA are normal. Residual bone scan changes are allowed.

Partial Response: 50% to 90% decrease in the size of all measurable lesions; the number of bone scan–positive sites is decreased by greater than 50% and no new lesions are present; no more than one positive bone marrow site allowed if this represents a reduction in the number of sites originally positive for tumor at diagnosis.

Mixed Response: No new lesions, 50% to 90% reduction of any measurable lesion (primary or metastatic) with less than 50% reduction in other lesions and less than 25% increase in any lesion.

No Response or Stable Disease: No new lesions; less than 50% reduction and less than 25% increase in any lesion.

Progressive Disease: Any new lesion; increase in any measurable lesion by greater than 25%; previous negative bone marrow now positive for tumor. Persistent elevation in urinary VMA/HVA with stable disease or an increase in VMA/HVA without clinical or radiographic evidence of progression does not indicate progressive disease, but warrants continued follow-up. Care should be taken in interpreting the development of metastatic disease in an infant who was initially considered to have stage 1 or 2 disease. If the pattern of metastases in such a patient is consistent with a 4S pattern of disease (skin, liver, bone marrow less than 10% involved), these patients are not classified as progressive/metastatic disease, which would be a criteria for removal from protocol therapy. Instead, these patients are managed as stage 4S.

Surgery

In patients without metastatic disease, the standard of care is to perform an initial surgery to accomplish the following:

Establish the diagnosis.

Resect as much of the primary tumor as is safely possible.

Accurately stage disease through sampling of regional lymph nodes that are not adherent to the tumor.

Obtain adequate tissue for biological studies.

The COG reported that expectant observation in infants younger than 6 months with small adrenal masses resulted in an excellent EFS and OS while avoiding surgical intervention in a large majority of patients.[13]

Whether there is any advantage to gross-total resection of the primary tumor mass after chemotherapy in stage 4 patients older than 18 months is controversial.[14,15,16,17]

Radiation Therapy

In the completed COG treatment plan, radiation therapy for patients with low-risk or intermediate-risk neuroblastoma was reserved for symptomatic life-threatening or organ-threatening tumor bulk that did not respond rapidly enough to chemotherapy. Common situations in which radiation therapy is used in these patients include the following:

Infants aged 60 days and younger with stage 4S and marked respiratory compromise from liver metastases that has not responded to chemotherapy.

Spinal cord compression is considered a medical emergency. Immediate treatment is given because neurologic recovery is more likely when symptoms are present for a relatively short period of time before diagnosis and treatment. Recovery also depends on the severity of neurologic defects (weakness vs. paralysis). Neurologic outcome appears to be similar whether cord compression is treated with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or surgery, although radiation therapy is used less frequently than in the past.

Children with severe spinal cord compression that does not promptly improve or those with worsening symptoms may benefit from neurosurgical intervention. Laminectomy may result in later kyphoscoliosis and may not eliminate the need for chemotherapy.[18,19,20] It was thought that osteoplastic laminotomy, a procedure that does not remove bone, would result in less spinal deformity. Osteoplastic laminotomy may be associated with a lower incidence of progressive spinal deformity requiring fusion but there is no evidence that functional deficit is improved with laminoplasty.[21]

Surveillance During and After Treatment

Surveillance studies during and after treatment are able to detect asymptomatic and unsuspected relapse in a substantial portion of patients. In an overall surveillance plan, one of the most reliable tests to detect disease progression or recurrence is the 123 I-metaiodobenzylguanidine scan.[22,23]

Moroz V, Machin D, Faldum A, et al.: Changes over three decades in outcome and the prognostic influence of age-at-diagnosis in young patients with neuroblastoma: a report from the International Neuroblastoma Risk Group Project. Eur J Cancer 47 (4): 561-71, 2011.

Treatment of Low-Risk Neuroblastoma

Low-risk neuroblastoma represents nearly one-half of all newly diagnosed patients. The success of prior Children's Oncology Group (COG) clinical trials has contributed to the continued reduction in therapy for select patients with neuroblastoma.

c INSS stage 2A/2B symptomatic patients with spinal cord compression, neurologic deficits, or other symptoms are treated with immediate chemotherapy for four cycles.

d INSS stage 4S infants with favorable biology and clinical symptoms are treated with immediate chemotherapy until asymptomatic (2–4 cycles). Clinical symptoms include the following: respiratory distress with or without hepatomegaly or cord compression and neurologic deficit or inferior vena cava compression and renal ischemia; or genitourinary obstruction; or gastrointestinal obstruction and vomiting; or coagulopathy with significant clinical hemorrhage unresponsive to replacement therapy.

1

0–21 y

Any

Any

Any

2A/2Bc

<365 d

Any

Any

Any

?365 d–21 y

Nonamplified

Any

-

?365 d–21 y

Amplified

Favorable

-

4Sd

<365 d

Nonamplified

Favorable

>1

(Refer to the Treatment of Stage 4S Neuroblastoma section of this summary for more information about the treatment of stage 4S neuroblastoma.)

Standard Treatment Options for Low-Risk Neuroblastoma

For patients with localized disease that appears to be resectable based on the absence of image-defined risk factors (L1), the tumor should be resected by an experienced surgeon. If the biology is confirmed to be favorable, residual disease is not considered a risk factor for relapse. Several studies have shown that patients with favorable biology and residual disease have excellent outcomes with event-free survival (EFS) in excess of 90% and overall survival (OS) of 99% to 100%.[1,2]

Standard treatment options for low-risk neuroblastoma include the following:

1.

Surgery.

2.

Observation without biopsy (for infants younger than 6 months and disease limited to the adrenal gland that is less than 3 cm in diameter).

Treatment for patients categorized as low risk (refer to Table 6) may be surgery alone, which is curative for most patients with low-risk neuroblastoma. Patients need not undergo complete resection of disease to be cured by surgery alone.[2]

There is controversy about the need to attempt resection, whether at the time of diagnosis or later, in asymptomatic infants aged 12 months or younger with apparent stage 2B and 3 MYCN-nonamplified disease. In a German clinical trial, some of these patients were observed after biopsy or partial resection without chemotherapy or radiation, and many did not progress locally and never received additional resection.[3]

Observation without biopsy

Studies suggest that selected small adrenal masses, presumed to be neuroblastoma, detected in infants younger than 6 months by screening or incidental ultrasound may safely be observed without obtaining a definitive histologic diagnosis and without surgical intervention, thus avoiding potential complications of surgery in the newborn.[4]

Eighty-three of 87 eligible patients were observed without biopsy or resection and only 16 (19%) ultimately underwent surgery.

Three-year EFS (for a neuroblastoma event) was 97.7% and OS was 100%.

Chemotherapy

Results from the COG-P9641 study showed that surgery alone, even without complete resection, can cure nearly all patients with stage 1 neuroblastoma, and the vast majority of patients with asymptomatic, favorable biology, INSS stage 2A and 2B disease.[2] The use of chemotherapy may be restricted to specific situations (e.g., children with MYCN-amplified stage 1 and 2 neuroblastoma and children with MYCN-nonamplified stage 2B neuroblastoma who are older than 18 months or who have unfavorable histology or diploid disease). These children have a less favorable outcome than other low-risk patients.[2,5]

Chemotherapy is also reserved for patients who are symptomatic, such as from spinal cord compression or, in stage 4S, respiratory compromise secondary to hepatic infiltration. The chemotherapy consists of carboplatin, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and etoposide. The cumulative chemotherapy dose of each agent is kept low to minimize permanent injury (COG-P9641).[2]

Evidence (chemotherapy):

1.

The COG-P9641 study was one of the first COG studies to test risk stratification based on consensus-derived factors. In this phase III nonrandomized trial, 915 patients underwent an initial operation to obtain tissue for diagnosis and biology studies and for maximal safe primary tumor resection. Chemotherapy was reserved for patients with, or at risk of, symptomatic disease, with less than 50% tumor resection at diagnosis or with unresectable progressive disease after surgery alone.[2]

Stage 2A and 2B: Asymptomatic patients with stage 2A and 2B disease (n = 306) who were observed after initial operation had a 5-year EFS of 87% and OS rate of 96%. EFS was significantly better for patients with stage 2A than for patients with 2B neuroblastoma (92% vs. 85%; P = .0321), but OS did not differ significantly (98% and 96%; P = .2867). The primary study objective (to achieve a 3-year OS of 95% for asymptomatic patients with stage 2A and 2B disease) was met. Patients with stage 2B disease had a lower EFS and OS for those with unfavorable histology (EFS, 72%; OS, 86%) or diploid tumors (EFS, 75%; OS, 84%) or for patients older than 18 months. Outcome for patients with stage 2B, diploid tumors, and unfavorable histology was particularly poor (EFS, 54%; OS, 70%), with no survivors in the few patients with additional 1p loss of heterozygosity and all deaths occurring in children older than 18 months.

Asymptomatic patients at diagnosis who were observed after initial operation: Of the initial 915 patients, 800 were asymptomatic at diagnosis and observed after their initial operations. Within this group, 11% experienced recurrent or progressive disease. Of the 115 patients who received immediate chemotherapy (median, four cycles; range, one to eight), 81% of the patients had a very good partial response or better. After chemotherapy, 10% of the patients had disease recurrence or progression. For patients treated with surgery alone, the 5-year EFS rate was 89% and the overall survival estimate was 97% and for patients treated with surgery and immediate chemotherapy, the 5-year EFS rate was 91% and the overall survival estimate was 98%.

MYCN amplification: The impact of MYCN-amplified tumors was analyzed in stage I disease. For patients with MYCN-nonamplified tumors the 5-year EFS was 93% and the OS was 99% and for MYCN-amplified tumors the 5-year EFS was 70% (P = .0042) and OS was 80% (P < .001).

Current Clinical Trials

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI's list of cancer clinical trials that are now accepting patients with neuroblastoma. The list of clinical trials can be further narrowed by location, drug, intervention, and other criteria.

General information about clinical trials is also available from the NCI Web site.

(Refer to the Treatment of Stage 4S Neuroblastoma section of this summary for more information about the treatment of stage 4S neuroblastoma.)

Standard Treatment Options for Intermediate-Risk Neuroblastoma

Standard treatment options for intermediate-risk neuroblastoma include the following:

1.

Surgery and chemotherapy.

2.

Surgery and observation (in infants).

3.

Radiation therapy.

Surgery and chemotherapy

Patients categorized as intermediate risk have been successfully treated with surgery and four to eight cycles of chemotherapy (carboplatin, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and etoposide; the cumulative dose of each agent is kept low to minimize permanent injury from the chemotherapy regimen) (COG-A3961). As a rule, patients whose tumors had unfavorable biology received eight cycles of chemotherapy, compared with four cycles for patients whose tumors had favorable biology. The COG-A3961 phase III trial demonstrated that therapy could be significantly reduced for patients with intermediate-risk neuroblastoma while maintaining outstanding survival.[4]

Whether initial chemotherapy is indicated for all intermediate-risk infants with localized neuroblastoma is controversial.

Evidence (surgery and chemotherapy):

1.

In North America, the COG (COG-A3961) investigated a risk-based neuroblastoma treatment plan that assigned all patients to a low-, intermediate-, or high-risk group based on age, International Neuroblastoma Staging System (INSS) stage, and tumor biology (i.e., MYCN gene amplification, International Neuroblastoma Pathology Classification system, and DNA ploidy). This study investigated an overall reduction in treatment compared with prior treatment plans in patients with unresectable, localized, MYCN-nonamplified tumors. The intermediate-risk group received four to eight cycles of moderate-dose neoadjuvant chemotherapy (carboplatin, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and etoposide), additional surgery in some instances, and avoided radiation therapy. Of the 464 intermediate-risk tumors (stages 3, 4, and 4S), 69.6% of them had favorable features, defined as hyperdiploidy and favorable histology, and were assigned to receive four cycles of chemotherapy.[4]

The administration of neoadjuvant chemotherapy facilitated at least a partial resection of 99.6% of the previously unresectable tumors. No significant difference was noted in overall survival (OS) according to the degree of resection (complete vs. incomplete, P = .37).

Only 2.5% of the 479 patients received local radiation therapy. The 3-year event-free survival (EFS) was 88% and OS was 95%.

There was no difference in OS in patients with favorable biologic features between those who received eight cycles of chemotherapy (100%) compared with those who received four cycles (96%).

There was no unexpected toxicity.

2.

A German prospective clinical trial enrolled 340 infants aged 1 year or younger whose tumors were stage 1, 2, or 3, histologically verified, and lacked MYCN amplification. Chemotherapy was given at diagnosis to 57 infants with organs threatened by tumor. The tumor was completely resected or nearly so in 190 infants who underwent low-risk surgery. A total of 93 infants whose tumors were not resectable without high-risk surgery, due to age or organ involvement, were observed without chemotherapy.[5]

Further surgery was avoided in 33 infants and chemotherapy was avoided in 72 infants.

The 3-year OS rate for the infants who were observed without treatment was 99%. The metastases-free survival rate was 94% for infants with unresected tumors and was not different from infants treated with surgery or chemotherapy (median follow-up, 58 months).

The investigators suggested that a wait-and-see strategy is appropriate for infants with localized neuroblastoma because regressions have been observed after the first year of life.

3.

Moderate-dose chemotherapy has been shown to be effective in the prospective Infant Neuroblastoma European Study (EURO-INF-NB-STUDY-1999-99.1); about one-half of the infants with unresectable, nonmetastatic neuroblastoma and no MYCN amplification underwent a safe surgical resection and avoided long-term adverse effects.[6][Level of evidence: 3iiA]

The 5-year OS rate was 99% and the EFS rate was 90% (median follow-up, 6 years).

In this study, infants undergoing surgical resection had a better EFS than those who did not have surgery.

4.

In two European prospective trials of infants with disseminated neuroblastoma without MYCN gene amplification, infants with INSS stage 3 primary or positive skeletal scintigraphy were not started on chemotherapy unless life-threatening or organ-threatening symptoms developed. Chemotherapy when given consisted of short-dose and standard-dose chemotherapy.[7]

The OS was 100% in the 41 patients who did not have INSS stage 4S regardless of initial chemotherapy.

In infants with overt metastases to the skeleton, lung, and central nervous system, the 2-year OS was 96% (n = 45).

No patients died of surgery-related or chemotherapy-related complications on either protocol.

In cases of abdominal neuroblastoma thought to involve the kidney, nephrectomy is not undertaken before a trial of chemotherapy has been given.[8]

Surgery and observation in infants

The need for chemotherapy in all asymptomatic infants with stage 3 or 4 disease is somewhat controversial, as some studies have shown favorable outcomes with surgery and observation as described below.[7]

Evidence (surgery and observation in infants):

1.

Infants classified as stage 4 (from 4S) due to a primary tumor infiltrating across the midline (INSS 3) or positive bone scintigraphy not associated with changes in the cortical bone documented on plain radiographs and/or computed tomography were reported to have a better outcome compared to other stage 4 infants (EFS, 90% vs. 27%).[9]

2.

International Society of Paediatric Oncology European Neuroblastoma Group (SIOPEN) conducted a prospective trial of 125 infants (n = 41 with INSS 3 primary tumors or positive scintigraphy) with disseminated neuroblastoma without MYCN amplification to see if these patients could be observed in the absence of symptoms. However, treating physicians did not always follow the wait-and-see strategy.[7]

There was no significant difference in 2-year OS in patients with unresectable primary tumors and patients with resectable primary tumors (97% vs. 100%) and patients with negative or with positive skeletal scintigraphy without radiologic abnormalities (100% vs. 97%).

3.

A German prospective clinical trial enrolled 340 infants aged 1 year or younger whose tumors were stage 1, 2, or 3, verified histologically, and lacked MYCN amplification. Of the 190 infants undergoing resection, there were eight infants with stage 3 disease. A total of 93 infants whose tumors were not resectable without high-risk surgery, due to age or organ involvement, were observed without chemotherapy, which included 21 stage 3 patients. Fifty-seven infants, including 41 stage 3 patients, were treated with chemotherapy to control threatening symptoms.[5]

Symptomatic life-threatening or organ-threatening tumor that does not respond rapidly enough to chemotherapy and/or surgery and/or;

Progressive disease.

Current Clinical Trials

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI's list of cancer clinical trials that are now accepting patients with neuroblastoma. The list of clinical trials can be further narrowed by location, drug, intervention, and other criteria.

General information about clinical trials is also available from the NCI Web site.

e INSS stage 4S infants with favorable biology and clinical symptoms are treated with immediate chemotherapy until asymptomatic (2–4 cycles). Clinical symptoms include the following: respiratory distress with or without hepatomegaly or cord compression and neurologic deficit or inferior vena cava compression and renal ischemia; or genitourinary obstruction; or gastrointestinal obstruction and vomiting; or coagulopathy with significant clinical hemorrhage unresponsive to replacement therapy.

2A/2Bc

?365 d–21 y

Amplified

Unfavorable

-

3d

<365 d

Amplified

Any

Any

?365 d–21 y

Nonamplified

Unfavorable

-

?365 d–21 y

Amplified

Any

-

4d

<365 d

Amplified

Any

Any

?548 d–21 y

Any

Any

-

4Se

<365 d

Amplified

Any

Any

Approximately 8% to 10% of infants with stage 4S disease will have MYCN-amplified tumors and are usually treated on high-risk protocols. The overall event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) for infants with stage 4 and 4S disease and MYCN-amplification were only 30% at 2 to 5 years posttreatment in a European study.[1]

For children with high-risk neuroblastoma, long-term survival with current treatments is about 54%.[2] Children with aggressively treated, high-risk neuroblastoma may develop late recurrences, some more than 5 years after completion of therapy.[3,4]

The backbone of the most commonly used induction therapy includes dose-intensive cycles of cisplatin and etoposide alternating with vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and doxorubicin.[5] Topotecan was added to this regimen based on the anti-neuroblastoma activity seen in relapsed patients.[6] Response to therapy at the end of induction chemotherapy correlates with EFS at the completion of high-risk therapy.[7] After a response to chemotherapy, resection of the primary tumor is usually attempted.

Consolidation phase

The consolidation phase of high-risk regimens involves myeloablative chemotherapy and HSCT, which attempts to eradicate minimal residual disease using lethal doses of chemotherapy and autologous stem cells collected during induction chemotherapy to repopulate the bone marrow. Several large randomized controlled studies have shown an improvement in 3-year EFS for HSCT (31% to 47%) versus conventional chemotherapy (22% to 31%).[8,9,10] Previously, total-body irradiation had been used in HSCT conditioning regimens. Most current protocols use either carboplatin/etoposide/melphalan or busulfan/melphalan as conditioning for HSCT. Two or more sequential cycles of myeloablative chemotherapy and stem cell rescue given in a tandem fashion has been shown to be feasible for patients with high-risk neuroblastoma.[11,12]

A randomized clinical study (COG-ANBL0532) testing the efficacy of two cycles versus one cycle of myeloablative chemotherapy with stem cell rescue has been completed. (Refer to the Autologous Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation section in the PDQ summary on Childhood Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for more information about transplantation.)

Radiation to the primary tumor site (whether or not a complete excision was obtained) and persistently metaiodobenzylguanidine-positive bony metastatic sites is often performed before, during, or after myeloablative therapy. The optimal dose of radiation therapy has not been determined. Radiation of metastatic disease sites is determined on an individual case basis.

Differentiation therapy is used to treat potential minimal residual disease following HSCT.[14] After recovery from myeloablative chemotherapy and stem cell rescue, patients are treated with the differentiating agent oral isotretinoin for 6 months. Immunotherapy is given along with differentiated therapy in the post-HSCT differentiation therapy regimen. Antibodies developed to target GD2, present on the surface of neuroblastoma cells, are used. For high risk-patients in remission following HSCT, chimeric anti-GD2 antibody ch14.18 combined with GM-CSF and interleukin-2 are given in concert with isotretinoin and have been shown to improve EFS.[15,16]

Evidence (all treatments):

1.

A randomized study was performed comparing high-dose therapy with purged autologous bone marrow transplant (ABMT) versus three cycles of intensive consolidation chemotherapy. In addition, patients on this study were subsequently randomly assigned to stop therapy or to receive 6 months of isotretinoin.[8]; [14][Level of evidence: 1iiA]

The 5-year EFS was significantly better in the ABMT arm (30%), compared with the consolidation chemotherapy arm (19%; P = .04). There was no significant difference in 5-year OS (39% vs. 30%; P = .39). However, in patients who survived more than 3 years, a significant benefit is seen in OS with ABMT.[14]

Patients who received isotretinoin had a higher 5-year EFS than patients who received no maintenance therapy (42% vs. 31%), although the difference was not significant. For patients who participated in both random assignments, the 5-year OS from the time of the second randomization for patients assigned ABMT and isotretinoin was 59% and 41% for patients assigned to ABMT without isotretinoin. Patients assigned to consolidation chemotherapy and isotretinoin showed a 5-year survival of 38% and 36% for patients receiving consolidation chemotherapy and no isotretinoin.[14] However, these patients were selected for having completed ABMT without developing progressive disease.

2.

In a separate study, there was no advantage to purging harvested stem cells of neuroblastoma cells before transplantation.[17]

3.

In a COG phase III trial following HSCT, patients were randomly assigned to receive anti-GD2 monoclonal antibody (ch14.18) administered with GM-CSF and interleukin-2.[15]

Immunotherapy together with isotretinoin (EFS, 66%) was superior to standard isotretinoin maintenance therapy (EFS, 46%). As a result, immunotherapy post-HSCT is considered the standard of care in COG trials for high-risk disease.

Local control (surgery and radiation therapy)

The potential benefit of aggressive surgical approaches in high-risk patients with metastatic disease to achieve complete tumor resection, either at the time of diagnosis or following chemotherapy, has not been unequivocally demonstrated.

Several studies have reported that complete resection of the primary tumor at diagnosis improved survival; however, the outcome in these patients may be more dependent on the biology of the tumor, which itself may determine resectability, than on the extent of surgical resection.[18,19,20,21,22,23]

Radiation therapy to consolidate local control after surgical resection is often given.[24]; [25][Level of evidence: 3iiA]

In stage 4 patients older than 18 months, it is controversial as to whether there is any advantage to gross-total resection of the primary tumor mass after chemotherapy.[20,21,22,23]

Treatment Options Under Clinical Evaluation

The following are examples of national and/or institutional clinical trials that are currently being conducted. Information about ongoing clinical trials is available from the NCI Web site.

COG-ANBL12P1 (NCT01798004) (Busulfan, Melphalan, and SCT After Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Newly Diagnosed High-Risk Neuroblastoma): The International Society of Paediatric Oncology European Neuroblastoma Group (SIOPEN) published a comparison of the conditioning regimen busulfan/melphalan (BuMel) versus carboplatin/etoposide/melphalan (CEM), and BuMel showed better survival outcomes. Because BuMel has not been used with the COG induction regimen, the primary objective of this study is to examine the toxicity profile of BuMel in the context of COG therapy, with specific focus on the incidence and severity of pulmonary and hepatic toxicity.The outcome of this trial will influence the choice of preparative regimens used in the upcoming COG high-risk neuroblastoma trials.

COG-ANBL09P1 (NCT01175356) (Induction Therapy Including 131 I-Metaiodobenzylguanidine [mIBG] and Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Newly Diagnosed High-Risk Neuroblastoma Undergoing SCT, Radiation Therapy, and Maintenance Therapy With Isotretinoin): This limited-institution study uses the COG induction-phase therapy followed by semiablative mIBG and autologous SCT followed by BuMel myeloablative induction with a second autologous SCT, followed by the standard surgery and radiation and maintenance therapy with isotretinoin.

COG-ANBL0032 (Isotretinoin With Monoclonal Antibody, Interleukin-2, and Sargramostim Following SCT in Treating Patients With Neuroblastoma): The COG is studying, now in a nonrandomized fashion, the use of monoclonal antibody therapy with GM-CSF and interleukin-2 combined with isotretinoin following chemotherapy.[15]

Current Clinical Trials

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI's list of cancer clinical trials that are now accepting patients with neuroblastoma. The list of clinical trials can be further narrowed by location, drug, intervention, and other criteria.

General information about clinical trials is also available from the NCI Web site.

Treatment of Stage 4S Neuroblastoma

Most cases of stage 4S neuroblastoma do not require therapy. However, if bulk disease is causing organ compromise and risk of death, low-dose to moderate-dose chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy is used. Eight percent to 10% of these patients will have MYCN amplification and are treated with high-risk protocols.[1] (Refer to the Treatment of High-Risk Neuroblastoma section of this summary for more information about the treatment of stage 4S high-risk neuroblastoma.)

c INSS stage 4S infants with favorable biology and clinical symptoms are treated with immediate chemotherapy until asymptomatic (2–4 cycles). Clinical symptoms include the following: respiratory distress with or without hepatomegaly or cord compression and neurologic deficit or inferior vena cava compression and renal ischemia; or genitourinary obstruction; or gastrointestinal obstruction and vomiting; or coagulopathy with significant clinical hemorrhage unresponsive to replacement therapy.

4Sc

<365 d

Nonamplified

Favorable

>1

Low

<365 d

Nonamplified

Any

=1

Intermediate

<365 d

Nonamplified

Unfavorable

Any

Intermediate

<365 d

Amplified

Any

Any

High

Treatment Options for Stage 4S Neuroblastoma

There is no standard approach to the treatment of stage 4S neuroblastoma.

Treatment options for stage 4S neuroblastoma include the following:

1.

Observation with supportive care (asymptomatic patients).

2.

Chemotherapy (symptomatic patients).

Resection of primary tumor is not associated with improved outcome.[2,3,4]

Observation with supportive care (asymptomatic patients)

The treatment of children with stage 4S disease is dependent on clinical presentation.[2,3] Most patients do not require therapy unless bulk disease is causing organ compromise and risk of death.

Chemotherapy (symptomatic patients)

Infants diagnosed with International Neuroblastoma Staging System (INSS) stage 4S neuroblastoma, particularly those with hepatomegaly or those younger than 2 months, have the potential for rapid clinical deterioration and may benefit from early initiation of therapy. It has been difficult to identify infants with stage 4S disease who will benefit from chemotherapy. Several clinical trials have evaluated the presence of symptoms in patients with 4S disease, including the following:

In 45 patients with stage 4S neuroblastoma diagnosed in the first month of life, 16 patients developed dyspnea caused by massive liver enlargement; one-half of them did not survive.[5]

A review of 35 patients with INSS stage 4S disease described 13 patients younger than 4 weeks, all of whom had liver involvement. Of the seven who died, all presented with hepatomegaly at birth and all deaths were due to hepatomegaly or related complications. Of the infants who were aged 1 month to 12 months (n = 22), 21 had hepatomegaly, and there were three deaths (14%). Deaths were due to infection, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and radiation nephritis. One death was related to hepatomegaly. A scoring system to measure signs and symptoms of deterioration or compromise was developed to better assess this group.[6] This scoring system has been evaluated retrospectively and was predictive of the clinical course and has been applied prospectively. It was also helpful in directing the management of patients with INSS 4S disease.[6,7]

Various chemotherapy regimens (cyclophosphamide alone, carboplatin/etoposide, cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin/vincristine) have been used to treat symptomatic patients. The approach is to administer the chemotherapy only as long as symptoms persist in order to avoid toxicity, which contributes to lower survival. Additionally, lower doses of chemotherapy are often recommended for very young or low-weight infants along with granulocyte colony-stimulating factors after each cycle of chemotherapy.

Overall, the 5-year event-free survival (EFS) was 77% and the overall survival (OS) was 91%.

The 5-year EFS was 63% and OS was 84% for the 41 patients with asymptomatic stage 4S neuroblastoma treated with surgery alone, and the EFS was 95% and OS was 97% for the 39 patients treated with surgery and chemotherapy (EFS P = .0016; OS P = .1302). Previously, chemotherapy toxicity was thought to be responsible for the lower survival of patients with stage 4S disease; however, the use of chemotherapy on COG-P9641 was restricted to specific clinical situations with a recommended number of cycles.

2.

Also, on COG-P9641, asymptomatic infants with biologically favorable (MYCN-nonamplified) INSS stage 4S disease did not receive chemotherapy until the development of progressive disease or clinical symptoms.[8]

Infants who became symptomatic had disease-related organ failure and infectious complications resulting in an inferior OS compared with those who received immediate chemotherapy (4–8 cycles of therapy). The 3-year OS for infants who did not receive chemotherapy was 84% versus 97% for infants who received chemotherapy (P = .1321).

3.

On COG-ANBL0531, the 2-year OS rates for INSS stage 4S patients was 81%, which is lower than reported on COG-P9641 and thought to reflect the expanded eligibility allowing enrollment of ill infants.[9]

4.

A prospective study was performed in 125 infants with stage 4S MYCN-nonamplified tumors or INSS stage 3 primary tumors and/or positive bone scintigraphy not associated with changes in the cortical bone documented on plain radiographs and/or CT. A pretreatment symptom score was used to determine initial treatment; observation was recommended for infants with low symptom scores (n = 86) and chemotherapy for infants with high symptom scores (n = 37). The chemotherapy recommended for patients with high symptom scores included two to four 3-day courses of carboplatin and etoposide, and if symptoms persisted or progressive disease developed, up to four 5-day courses of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and vincristine were administered. One-half of the patients underwent complete or partial resection of the primary tumor.[7]

There was no difference in the 2-year EFS and OS between asymptomatic and symptomatic patients (EFS, 87% vs. 88%; OS, 98% vs. 97%), although many of the investigators preferred to give chemotherapy in the presence of a low symptom score.

For infants with low symptom scores, there was no difference between the outcome in the initially untreated infants (n = 56; OS, 93%) and treated infants (n = 30; OS, 86%).

The OS was 90% for infants presenting with high symptom scores.

There was no significant difference in 2-year OS in patients with unresectable primary tumors and patients with resectable primary tumors (97% vs. 100%) and patients with negative or with positive skeletal scintigraphy without radiologic abnormalities (100% vs. 97%).

Recurrent Neuroblastoma

Tumor growth due to maturation should be differentiated from tumor progression by performing a biopsy and reviewing histology. Patients may have persistent maturing disease with metaiodobenzylguanidine (mIBG) uptake that does not affect outcome.[1] When neuroblastoma recurs in a child originally diagnosed with high-risk disease, the prognosis is usually poor despite additional intensive therapy.[2,3,4,5] However, it is often possible to gain many additional months of life for these patients with alternative chemotherapy regimens.[6,7] Clinical trials are appropriate for these patients and may be offered. Information about ongoing clinical trials is available from the NCI Web site.

Prognostic Factors for Recurrent Neuroblastoma

The International Neuroblastoma Risk Group Project performed a decision-tree analysis of clinical and biological characteristics (defined at diagnosis) associated with survival after relapse in 2,266 patients with neuroblastoma entered on large clinical trials in well-established clinical trials groups around the world.[2]

Overall survival (OS) in the entire relapse population was 20%.

Among patients with all stages of disease at diagnosis, MYCN amplification predicted a poorer prognosis, measured as 5-year OS.

Among patients diagnosed with International Neuroblastoma Staging System (INSS) stage 4 without amplification, age older than18 months and high lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level predicted poor prognosis.

Among patients with MYCN amplification, stages 1 and 2 have a better prognosis than stages 3 and 4.

Among patients with MYCN-nonamplified who are not stage 4, patients with hyperdiploidy had a better prognosis than patients with diploidy in those younger than 18 months, while among those older than 18 months, differentiating tumors did much better than undifferentiated and poorly differentiated tumors.

Significant prognostic factors determined at diagnosis for postrelapse survival include the following:[2]

The Children's Oncology Group (COG) experience with recurrence in low-risk and intermediate-risk neuroblastoma is that the majority of recurrences can be salvaged. The COG reported a 3-year event free survival (EFS) of 88% and an OS of 96% in intermediate-risk patients and a 5-year EFS of 89% and OS of 97% in low-risk patients.[8,9] Moreover, in most patients originally diagnosed with low-risk or intermediate-risk disease, local recurrence or recurrence in the 4S pattern may be treated successfully without hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Those with favorable biology and regional recurrence more than 3 months after completion of planned treatment are observed if resection of the recurrence is total or near total (?90% resection). Those with favorable biology and a less than near-total resection are treated with chemotherapy.

Infants younger than 1 year at the time of locoregional recurrence whose tumors have any unfavorable biologic properties are observed if resection is total or near total. If the resection is less than near total, these same infants are treated with chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy may consist of moderate doses of carboplatin, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and etoposide. The cumulative dose of each agent is kept low to minimize permanent injury from the chemotherapy regimen as used in prior COG trials (COG-P9641 and COG-A3961). Older children with local recurrence with either unfavorable International Neuroblastoma Pathology Classification at diagnosis or MYCN gene amplification have a poor prognosis and are treated with aggressive combination chemotherapy, offered palliative care, or offered entry onto a clinical trial.

Evidence (surgery alone or chemotherapy with or without surgery):

1.

A COG study of treatment of low-risk patients with stage 1, 2A, 2B, and 4S neuroblastoma enrolled 915 patients, 800 of whom were asymptomatic and were treated with surgery alone followed by observation. The others received chemotherapy with or without surgery.

About 10% of patients developed progressive or recurrent tumor. The majority of the recurrences were treated on study with surgery alone or moderate chemotherapy with or without surgery, and most were salvaged as demonstrated by the EFS (89%) and OS (97%) rates at 5 years.[9]

Metastatic recurrent or progressive neuroblastoma in an infant initially categorized as low risk and younger than 1 year at recurrence may be treated according to tumor biology as defined in the prior COG trials (COG-P9641 and COG-A3961):

1.

If the biology is completely favorable, metastasis is in a 4S pattern, and the recurrence or progression is within 3 months of diagnosis, the patient is observed systematically.

2.

If the metastatic progression or recurrence occurs more than 3 months after diagnosis or not in a 4S pattern, then the primary tumor is resected if possible and chemotherapy is given.

Chemotherapy may consist of moderate doses of carboplatin, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and etoposide. The cumulative dose of each agent is kept low to minimize permanent injury from the chemotherapy regimen, as used in prior COG trials (COG-P9641 and COG-A3961).

Any child initially categorized as low risk who is older than 1 year at the time of metastatic recurrent or progressive disease and whose recurrence is not in the stage 4S pattern usually has a poor prognosis.

1.

Treatment may consist of an aggressive regimen of combination chemotherapy.

The standard treatment options for locoregional and metastatic recurrence in patients with intermediate-risk neuroblastoma are derived from the results of the COG-A3961 trial. Among 479 patients with intermediate-risk neuroblastoma treated on the COG-A3961 clinical trial, 42 patients developed disease progression. The rate was 10% of those with favorable biology and 17% of those with unfavorable biology. Thirty patients had locoregional recurrence, 11 had metastatic recurrence, and one had both types of recurrent disease. Six of the 42 patients died of disease, while 36 patients were salvaged. Thus, most patients with intermediate-risk neuroblastoma and disease progression may be salvaged.[8]

The current standard of care is based on the experience from the COG Intermediate-Risk treatment plan (COG-A3961). Locoregional recurrence of neuroblastoma with favorable biology that occurs more than 3 months after completion of chemotherapy may be treated surgically. If resection is less than near total, then additional chemotherapy may be given. Chemotherapy may consist of moderate doses of carboplatin, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and etoposide. The cumulative dose of each agent is kept low to minimize permanent injury from the chemotherapy regimen, as used in a prior COG trial (COG-A3961).

If the recurrence is metastatic and/or occurs while on chemotherapy or within 3 months of completing chemotherapy and/or the original tumor histology was unfavorable, the prognosis is poor and the patient is treated with an aggressive regimen of combination chemotherapy or entered on a clinical trial.

Recurrent Neuroblastoma in Patients Initially Classified as High Risk

Any recurrence in patients initially classified as high risk signifies a very poor prognosis.[2] Clinical trials may be offered. Palliative care should be considered as part of the patient's treatment plan.

Treatment options for recurrent or refractory neuroblastoma in patients initially classified as high risk include the following:

1.

Second autologous stem cell transplantation (SCT) after retrieval chemotherapy. (Refer to the Autologous Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation section in the PDQ summary on Childhood Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for more information about transplantation.)

2.

Chemotherapy.

Topotecan alone and in combination with cyclophosphamide or etoposide.

High-dose regimen of carboplatin, irinotecan, and temozolomide or ifosfamide, carboplatin, and etoposide.

Irinotecan and temozolomide.

3.

Iodine 131-mIBG (131 I-mIBG) alone, in combination with other therapy, or followed by stem cell rescue.

It is not known whether one therapeutic approach is superior to another.

Evidence (second autologous SCT following retrieval chemotherapy):

1.

Data from three consecutive German high-risk neuroblastoma trials described 253 children relapsing after intensive chemotherapy with autologous SCT who had a 5-year OS rate of less than 10%. Only 23 of the 253 patients eventually proceeded to a second autologous SCT following retrieval chemotherapy.[10][Level of evidence: 3iiiA]

Among these patients, the 3-year OS rate was 43%, but the 5-year OS rate was less than 20%.

This shows that intensive second-line therapy is feasible, although even with intensive therapy and second autologous SCT, only a small minority of relapsed high-risk neuroblastoma patients may benefit.

Evidence (chemotherapy):

1.

Topotecan alone and in combination with cyclophosphamide or etoposide has been used in patients with recurrent disease who did not receive topotecan initially.[11,12]; [13][Level of evidence: 1A]

2.

The combination of irinotecan and temozolomide had a 15% response rate in one study.[14][Level of evidence: 2A]

3.

High-dose carboplatin, irinotecan, and/or temozolomide has been used in patients resistant or refractory to regimens containing topotecan.[12]

4.

A retrospective study reported on 74 patients who received 92 cycles of ifosfamide, carboplatin, and etoposide, included 37 patients who received peripheral blood stem cell rescue following response to this drug combination.[15]

Disease regressions (major and minor responses) were achieved by 14 of 17 patients (82%) with a new relapse, 13 of 26 patients (50%) with refractory neuroblastoma, and 12 of 34 patients (35%) who were treated for progressive disease during chemotherapy (P = .005).

Grade 3 toxicities were rare.

Evidence (131 I-mIBG):

1.

For children with recurrent or refractory neuroblastoma, 131 I-mIBG is an effective palliative agent and may be considered.[16,17,18,19,20]; [21][Level of evidence: 3iiiA]

Recurrent Neuroblastoma in the Central Nervous System

Central nervous system (CNS) involvement, although rare at initial presentation, may occur in 5% to 10% of patients with recurrent neuroblastoma. Because upfront treatment for newly diagnosed patients does not adequately treat the CNS, the CNS has emerged as a sanctuary site leading to relapse.[22,23] CNS relapses are almost always fatal, with a median time to death of 6 months.

Current treatment approaches generally include eradicating bulky and microscopic residual disease in the CNS and minimal residual systemic disease that may herald further relapses. Neurosurgical interventions serve to decrease edema, control hemorrhage, and remove bulky tumor before starting therapy. Compartmental radioimmunotherapy using intrathecal radioiodinated monoclonal antibodies has been tested in patients with recurrent metastatic CNS neuroblastoma after surgery, craniospinal radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.[7]

Treatment Options Under Clinical Evaluation for Recurrent or Refractory Neuroblastoma

The following are examples of national and/or institutional clinical trials that are currently being conducted. Information about ongoing clinical trials is available from the NCI Web site.

COG-ANBL1221 (NCT01767194) (A Phase II Randomized Trial of Irinotecan/Temozolomide with Temsirolimus or Chimeric 14.18 Antibody [ch14.18] in Children with Refractory, Relapsed, or Progressive Neuroblastoma): This "Pick the Winner" phase II study is designed to compare the response rates and progression-free survival for patients with refractory, relapsed, or progressive neuroblastoma receiving temsirolimus or ch14.18 in combination with irinotecan and temozolomide. Patients more than 365 days of age who have progressed from INSS stage 1, 2, or 4S and have received no chemotherapy or only one cycle of chemotherapy are eligible for this trial.

NANT N2011-04 (NCT01711554) (Lenalidomide and Monoclonal Antibody With or Without Isotretinoin in Treating Younger Patients With Refractory or Recurrent Neuroblastoma): This study is to determine the maximum tolerated dose and/or recommended phase II dose of lenalidomide in combination with fixed doses of ch14.18 given intravenously for 4 days (days 8–11) and isotretinoin given twice each day orally for 14 days (days 15–28) and repeated every 28 days to children with refractory or recurrent neuroblastoma.

NCT00911560 (Bivalent Vaccine With Escalating Doses of the Immunological Adjuvant OPT-821, in Combination With Oral Beta-Glucan for High-Risk Neuroblastoma): The purpose of this study is to test the safety of a vaccine against neuroblastoma and its effect on cancer.

Studies with the ALK inhibitor crizotinib include the following: COG-ADVL0912 (NCT00939770), a phase I and II study of PF-02341066, an oral small molecule inhibitor of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) and C-met, in children with relapsed/refractory solid tumors and anaplastic large cell lymphoma; and ADVL1212 (NCT01606878), a phase I study of crizotinib in combination with conventional chemotherapy for relapsed or refractory solid tumors or anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

Current Clinical Trials

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI's list of cancer clinical trials that are now accepting patients with recurrent neuroblastoma. The list of clinical trials can be further narrowed by location, drug, intervention, and other criteria.

General information about clinical trials is also available from the NCI Web site.

Changes to this Summary (01 / 14 / 2014)

The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

Treatment of High-Risk Neuroblastoma

Revised text about the Children's Oncology Group (COG) ANBL12P1 trial to state that the International Society of Paediatric Oncology European Neuroblastoma Group published a comparison of the conditioning regimen busulfan/melphalan (BuMel) versus carboplatin/etoposide/melphalan, and BuMel showed better survival outcomes. Also added text to state that the outcome of this trial will influence the choice of preparative regimens used in upcoming COG high-risk neuroblastoma trials.

Added text about the COG-ANBL09P1 trial as a treatment option under clinical evaluation.

This summary is written and maintained by the PDQ Pediatric Treatment Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of NCI. The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or NIH. More information about summary policies and the role of the PDQ Editorial Boards in maintaining the PDQ summaries can be found on the About This PDQ Summary and PDQ NCI's Comprehensive Cancer Database pages.

About This PDQ Summary

Purpose of This Summary

This PDQ cancer information summary for health professionals provides comprehensive, peer-reviewed, evidence-based information about the treatment of neuroblastoma. It is intended as a resource to inform and assist clinicians who care for cancer patients. It does not provide formal guidelines or recommendations for making health care decisions.

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